Military and commercial electronics often employ cabling or wiring harnesses for transmitting electrical or optical signals. Such cabling and wiring harnesses often have connections at a termination point that can be disconnected and reconnected through the use of electrical plugs such as connector assemblies. Many such connector assemblies have a male component and a female component that are joined together to complete one or more circuits. Typically the male connector includes one or more electrical or optical conductors, and the female connector includes one or more receptacles for receiving the conductors of the male connector portion. When joining a male and female connector portions together, it is crucial that each of the conductors of the male member make contact with the appropriate structure within each opening in the female connector. Present day connector assemblies have mating tabs and grooves on the connector body mating surfaces. This assures that the pattern of pins on one connector body is precisely aligned and matched with the pin receptacles on the mating connector body, as the connector plug is inserted into the connector receptacle. These tabs also are used as retention pins to help hold the plug and receptacle together. Typically, when an electrical connector is involved, the female connector includes conductive contacts in a recess (i.e., receptacle) that receive conductive pins of the male connector.
On occasion, one or more of the conductive elements within the male or female connector components will become damaged and need repair. When such damage to a connector occurs, the normal procedure is to replace the defective conductive part. This may involve replacing defective contacts in the female connector component or replacing one or more pins in the male connector component. Damage can also extend to other parts such as a portion of the connector body of either the male or female connector. When there is damage to either of the male or female connectors, whether the damage is to a single conductive pin, a single conductive contact or a plurality of defective pins or contacts, repairing or replacing the defective pin or contact can be a time consuming process. Such repair may involve significant man hours in replacing the damaged pin or conductor and performing verification of all connections. If there is damage to the body of the connector, then the entire body has to be replaced, which represents removing and reattaching all of the conductors to the new connector body. When such damage occurs to a connector having dozens or more of individual conductors, one can appreciate the significant time and costs that can be incurred in the repair process.
Accordingly, there still exists a need for a connector assembly that can be repaired more quickly and easily in the event one or more conductive elements or the body portion of the assembly become damaged and need to be replaced.